PhD candidate in the research project Global Bones: Entangled Histories, Transfers and Translations in the Early Modern Age, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF, 2023-2028)

Working title of doctoral thesis: "The Power of Bones: Spiritual Agency in the Material Cultures of West Central Africa and Portuguese Angola (1483 – 1700)"

Research interests

  • Central African material cultures
  • History of Central Africa 1400-1800 CE
  • Christian relics and reliquaries in Central Africa 1400-1800 CE
  • Restitution of ancestors and belongings from colonial contexts
  • German colonial history

Curriculum Vitae

11/2023 — 10/2027 University of Bern, Switzerland
Doctoral candidate at the Institute of Art History, Department of Early Modern Art, University of Bern
10/2016 — 01/2020 Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
Master of Arts: African Studies
Focus: History, Anthropology, Kiswahili
Master's thesis: The Quest of Mzee Isaria Meli: A case study on the socio-historic relevance of human remains restitution
11/2018 — 03/2019 University of Dar es Salaam, Tansania
Semester abroad: History, Kiswahili
Scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
02/2018 — 06/2018 University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Semester abroad: History, Photography
10/2010 — 09/2016 Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
Bachelor of Arts: Asian and African Studies
Focus: History, Anthropology
Bachelor's thesis: Hendrik Witbooi and the Germans: Historical analysis of the period from 1880 to 1894